Sessions sending top DOJ lawyer to prosecute transgender murder case

Afterwards, Sessions and his department have made several decisions endangering the LGBTI community.

Jorge Sanders-Galvez, 23, has been charged with the murder, but authorities have not found a motive.

Des Moines County Attorney Amy Beavers told the Des Moines Register that federal authorities are investigating the case as a hate crime and "would like to be part of the state case for seamless prosecution, should an indictment in federal court be handed down".

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is not a man on the frontline of Civil Rights. After all, Sessions voted against protecting American citizens under gender identity hate crime legislation in the past, which means the attorney general is executing a law that he disagreed with in the Justice Department.

They noted his decision to discontinue an Obama administration policy directing the Justice Department to protect trans people from employment discrimination under Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 would contribute to hostilities against trans people.

The move does not necessarily signal a shift in Sessions's Justice Department. His DOJ also joined with the Education Department to overturn Obama-era guidance on transgender students, rescinding guidelines allowing trans students to use the correct bathrooms. But as attorney general, he has promised to uphold that law and has made fighting hate crimes a priority.

"We have and will continue to enforce hate crime laws aggressively and appropriately where transgendered [sic] individuals are victims", Sessions said.

Local media outlets in Iowa first reported in July of this year that federal prosecutors at the request of the Justice Department in Washington were considering filing federal charges against the two men arrested in Johnson's murder.

The Justice Department says a federal hate crimes lawyer is coming to Iowa to help in the case of a transgender teen killed past year.

Johnson's mother, Katrina, explained to The Des Moines Register that her son did not identify specifically as transgender, but that he enjoyed women's clothing and sometimes went by the name Kandicee with friends.

Christopher Perras, the DOJ lawyer sent to Iowa, will serve as a county prosecutor on the case, according to the Times.